Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water-based ink for ink-jet recording, an ink cartridge, an ink-jet recording apparatus, and an ink-jet recording method.
Description of the Related Art
As an ink usable for ink-jet recording, there is proposed a water-based pigment ink containing a pigment and water (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-231711).
It is important that in the above-described water-based pigment ink, any increase in the viscosity and any solidification due to drying of the water-based pigment ink are suppressed so as to prevent any delay in discharge of the ink from occurring for the purpose of realizing a stable discharge (jetting) of the water-based pigment ink. Further, the water-based pigment ink is required to have an improved image quality. In view of this situation, an object of the present teaching is to provide a water-based pigment ink for ink-jet recording in which the increase in viscosity and the solidification due to the drying of the water-based pigment ink are suppressed, the delay in discharge of the ink is hardly occurs, and the image quality is also improved.